Day: May 28, 2014

an unnamed Sin Cara didn’t wrestle on either of AAA tapings in Chiapas this past fortnight, but made the save for the tecnicos on both shows. He wore his old mask and revealed a new one, seeming to set up a new identity. Sin Cara even spoke about getting a third name to the press. After all that, AAA announced him as wrestling as Mistico and pictured him in his Mistico mask on Verano de Escandalo. AAA’s also shown no concern about using the Averno or Bengala names. It seems both legally doubtfully and seemingly totally hypocritical (they’re essentially doing what they’ve spent years in court trying to get Psicosis II/Histeria/Alebrije not to do), but there’s surely a fantastic story coming about how this is possible. Haven’t heard it yet. CMLL hasn’t addressed the situation, but may get around to it tonight.

The rest of Verano de Escandalo card is usual fare for a non-TripleMania major show. The nearly year long Psycho Clown versus Texano Jr. feud has it’s second ever title match, with Psycho Clown getting a rematch after referee Hijo del Tirantes cost him the championship back in October. (No one’s addresses if Hijo del Tirantes will be referee again.) The Mistico trios match, with nothing on the line but Mistico and Averno back in the same ring, main events. The undercard includes part two of a mysterious cruiserweight title tournament. That tournament started when champ Daga missed a show, and was billed as for the vacant title – but now Daga’s back on the card and it’s a #1 tournament. Mysterious, I tell you. Maybe the bigger story will take place on the card – there’s no obvious TripleMania main event yet.

CMLL does have an obvious Anniversary main event – Ultimo Guerrero versus Atlantis, this time we mean it – but is just running in place on that. They’re also running in place on a La Mascara/La Sombra/Rush versus Everyone Else feud. Mr. Niebla is supposed to be a big part of the Everyone Else but appeared to have gotten himself suspended while already serving another suspension. It’s some next level effort.

CMLL’s one storyline that is moving along is the En Busca de un Idolo tournament. They’ve cut down to a final four of Cachorro, Dragon Lee, Hechicero and Cavernario. Hechicero’s overwhelming fan support means he’s almost certainly going to make the final, but which of the other three join him and who ultimately wins is a unknown. All four have been excellent so far.

CMLL started to air a Mistico (II) vignette detailing his accident and injury. Should CMLL actually follow up on this and air regular new vignettes featuring Mistico on the road to recovery for the four months (his stated return date), this might actually succeed in getting Mistico II over in his return. CMLL following up on something regularly seems highly unlikely so we’re probably safe there.

I’m stuck on six. DTU ran shows which went okay when the commissions would actually let them do their hardcore stuff. X-Fly lost his hair for the five millionith time (and no commission seemed to have a problem with that?) CMLL shuffled their TV shows around a bit, no one noticed? CMLL is doing a weekday night news/recap show on Terra, which maybe a 100 people will actually see? CMLL returned to doing live Twitter updates for their shows, that was nice.

Two subtle points of note on this show. First, at least by the sound of the recent recaps and what we saw this past Sunday, the Rush/Sombra/Mascara trio is no longer costing their teammates matches. Those three are not getting along with the tecnicos, but without trashing the matches. (If that’s right, that’s an improvement.)

The other bit – also seen earlier but appearing to be the a trend – is Mephsito and Ephesto are no longer wearing their Hijos del Averno shirts. Mephisto has a generic CMLL tank top and Ephesto has an Ephesto shirt. It may just be whatever shirt happens to be in their gear bag this week, but it also may be them belatedly moving on. The announcers have not, as of yet.

AAA confirmed the Verano de Escandalo card posted on Monday, including the Mistico name and the picture of him in the Mistico mask. There’s a lot I don’t understand about that situation, but it’s particularly surprising AAA would bother giving Mistico a new mask if they’re comfortable picturing him with a new mask. This isn’t a one time occasion on that. AAA’s made sure to send out photos of him in that mask from the Tuxtla Guiterrez show as well.

There’s no sign of Blue Demon Jr. on the Verano de Escandalo card. He hasn’t been on the AAA show since 04/19 in DF, but they’ve brought up his feud with Chessman and heavily suggested their title match would take place on this show, including in local promotion. There’s all along been talk that AAA was still waiting for Demon to sign a contract; it’s unclear if he ever has, but the way he’s been used suggests something is unsettled. It’s really not that important for this feud – AAA’s not in any hurry there – but it throws into question Demon’s involvement the AAA US/el Rey project. If Court Bauer was correct a couple weeks ago, there’s less than 30 days before that thing starts to get filmed, Demon’s supposedly going to be a key player, but he can’t really be if they AAA doesn’t have him around when they need him.

It could be that the timeline is just off. You could get rich betting against AAA start dates, and Konnan going to PWG last week to scout talent suggests they’re not really that close to recording something. I figure you would pretty much know your roster if you were under 30 days out, not just taking a first look at indy guys. Even more so given we’ve been told people have been working on writing these shows for months, they’ve gotten to have written it around who they expect to have (with some leeway for adjustments), and it would figure Demon would be in those written plans. Things could still be worked out there, and I would bet on it being worked out, but it’s dragged long enough out to be noticeable.

I know, I just wrote two paragraphs of “there might be something not totally right about what we’re hearing about AAA’s US plans.” That’s groundbreaking stuff right there.

CMLL will be airing another Informa today at 5pm local (one hour earlier than last week.) The preview mentions Diamante Azul, Princesa Sugehit, and La Mascara as appearing. That doesn’t sound like the most exciting show, but it’s said they would be addressing the Mistico situation as well. It’s highly unlikely I’ll be around to watch this live, but I told @cmllrobot to record it for me and we’ll see how that goes.